more plans!

so we've found three farms, which seem to be the ones. now that that whole tricky business is off my chest, i've sort of become obsessed with finding people on couchsurfing. it seems that i'm a bit addicted to the planning process. maybe that's a good thing though, right? anyway, i also created a timeline of our trip: http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2850, which i will update periodically as well. it may seem like overkill, but hey, i'm enjoying myself.

so the three farms:
1) with a british husband and wife in tuscany, where we will be helping them restore an old villa. more manual labor than farmwork on this one, it seems, as the only animals they have are cats. though i do think they have six of them.
2) ten days with a gay couple - one american, one italian - helping them herd, milk, and tend their 60 goats. they also make goat cheese every two days and have other adorable seeming animals to care for. this one is still a bit shaky, but seems to be a go.
3) another british couple, this time on the island of sardinia. there we will be helping with the start of the olive harvest, as well as looking after a few donkeys and various other farm animals.

i think they all sound amazing, and i'm so happy to have found some people willing to have us!

we also made contact with our first couchsurfing host, a lovely-seeming woman in graz, austria. we will be spending two nights with her after our four initial days in vienna and before heading to zagreb, croatia. she seems like a great match, as she is both a student of social work and an avid rugby player. who could ask for anything more?